Love food hate Waste Part two for 2018 :)

Ellie79

Hello all. Is it ok if I join? I have been reading back on the thread (halfway through) and about to inventory the cupboards, and you have all inspired me. Spent this morning emptying out the fridge and freezer. I have lists now to put on a spreadsheet so that I can be more on top of this. I feel this is going to be a big mindset change so hoping this thread helps me a bit!

I feel the next month might be eating through ALL this food. I do love to cook and I am hitting a period of change in my life (end of one job, start of another, end of my PhD and start of PGCE) so now is a really good time to get ahead.

Anyways, hello and hope to chat to you all.
Ellie

[Deleted User]

Welcome Ellie79 and good luck with your PGCE, two of my grandchildren have successfully completed it. Its onwards and upwards now for you.

The satisfaction you will get from not only saving cash, but not binning food is really great .We all are here to help each other and no question is daft .I have had some really good ideas posted on here from fellow LFHW'ers so pull up a chair and join in



JackieO xx

Living_proof

I thought I would just give you all a bit of a laugh regarding the Lidl food waste boxes. They are £1.50 and are generally a mix of fruit and veg which is past its' best or maybe escaped a pack. I occasionally get one on a Sunday morning but last Saturday a friendly cashier recognised me as being the Banana Lady. I had previously bought a £1.50 box of all bananas and she asked me what I would do with them. I explained I have a dehydrator and I would dry them for snacks, smoothies etc. in future.

Last week she gave me the 'heads up' that on Sunday there were going to be loads of bananas and I thought I could process a few more and vacuum seal them for use in the winter. What she didn't say was that the boxes contained 34kg, yes you read that right! of perfectly ripe bananas, absolutely ideal for dehydrating. £1.50. I could scarcely believe my eyes - all Fyffes perfect bananas. It took 17 trays in the Excalibur to dry them all, and I have also dried the skins and blitzed to use as a fertiliser for my tomato plants. There were about 10 boxes of these bananas and I told as many people as I could in the queue who were quick to take them. They must have overstocked and I noticed yesterday the very same make in Lidl are 78p per kg so they were very much bargain of the month!

buildersdaughter

Very well done! I think that is one of the largest 'deals' ever featured here!

joedenise

I've never even seen these boxes. Probably don't get there early enough!

Living_proof

joedenise wrote: »

I've never even seen these boxes. Probably don't get there early enough!

They are put out first thing generally which is why I go on a Sunday as they open at 10 and not 8 as the rest of the week. I think the bananas were an exceptional buy and really you would need to have a dehydrator or ice cream maker to make use of them quickly enough. The usual boxes are really useful for small or single households because you get a few apples/tomatoes/pears/grapes etc. and so it's easy to use it all up. It always amazes me that more people don't queue for them but I suppose if they have been disappointed once if they have all gone, they probably won't bother again.

[Deleted User]

Wow thats got to be the bargain of the year !!!

The only time I ever had anything similar ,but not on such a large scale was a couple of years ago and about two days before I was due to go on holiday I had nipped into Sainsbobs to buy some sun screen and reduced in price to 10p was a 10kg net sack of onions. I bought them and took them home and peeled and diced and froze bagfuls of onions and what I couldn't get into my freezer I walked up and down my road giving them away to my neighbours. I was known locally for awhile as the onion lady but nothing was wasted and I didn't buy an onion for almost a year :):)

great bargain for you though and well done for using them up and it not ending up in landfill

JackieO xx

[Deleted User]

fridge looking a bit bare now but more than enough to last me until I go away on holiday this Saturday.Down to three eggs some tomatoes three quarters of a cucumber and some wild rocket which will get used up this week. Any left over cheese will go into the freezer. I have around 10 eating apples so they may be peeled ,poached in a little honey and cooled and frozen for turnovers or a pie for when I come home.tonight I am out at quiz night at the pub so I will get fed there.I only have two more evening meals to do as I am at DDs on Friday night as we always have a meal together before our holidays to use up her odds and ends as well .Then early start on Saturday morning and off to our beloved IoW for two weeks . Nothing wasted at all these past few weeks which I am pleased about.
I am only home for a fortnight then I shall be off to Torquay with my eldest DDs ma-in-law for a week, so normality won't really return until almost the end of September.Then it will be battening down the hatches and looking forward towards winter and Christmas I expect

Have a good day chums
JackieO xx

YorksLass

Welcome to the gang, Ellie79. :hello:

Mrs_Salad_Dodger wrote: »

A failure to report - left the cooked new potatoes in the fridge too long so had to compost

Commiserations. I had some left before we went on holiday and froze them. They've been hoicked out for tonight's dinner to be roasted and served with fishcakes and a mix of peas and sweetcorn.

JackieO wrote: »

fridge looking a bit bare now but more than enough to last me until I go away on holiday this Saturday. Down to three eggs some tomatoes three quarters of a cucumber and some wild rocket which will get used up this week. JackieO xx

Enjoy your jollies Jackie! Alas, we've had ours now and have just come back from Torquay (lovely weather) to an empty fridge. Scary, but the freezer has come to the rescue. Did a small shop yesterday for fresh (F&V etc) so it will be a relatively cheap week.

I too had some cucumber left pre-hols and knew it wouldn't get used so I pickled it with some onions. All thinly sliced, layered in a jar, topped with ordinary malt vinegar and added a tsp of sugar. No need to faff around with pickling spices and boiling vinegar etc. Sample taster tells me it's very good and still has some "bite" to it.

YorksLass

Had a freezer tidy-up yesterday so I could check my inventory was up to date (there were a couple of blips, things I'd used up but not crossed off ) and also so I could make sure I had enough room for items I'll be ordering on next week's delivery. I noticed I'm beginning to accumulate "bits" again so thought about what I could make to use them up.

So far, I've fried off some bacon bits that will go in tonight's spaghetti bolognaise; have used up some breadcrumbs/crusts along with chopped onions (frozen pre-hols) to make 12 individual portions of sage & onion stuffing and have evicted chopped red chillies and celery that have made it into savoury flapjacks.

A few other things have been earmarked for use over the next couple of days - some slices from a brown soda loaf will go with Saturday's seafood salad, enough chicken & veg soup for a couple of portions and two bananas for a fruit loaf. There's also a bag of crumble mix that may get used but that's dependent on how well my ys punnet of plums ripen. If they don't (and I often find these ripen-in-the-bowl ones don't ) I'll stew them down for crumble/to add to plain Greek yogurt for puddings.

All in all, a very satisfactory exercise in using up freezer bits as it all helps the purse to stay closed.